Ways to Make Money with the Amazon Mechanical Turk

bySurvival Insight onJune 30, 2013

The Amazon Mechanical Turk is so named after the 18th century chess-playing mechanical automaton that was built by the Hungarian nobleman Wolfgang von Kempelen. The automaton was designed in the form of a wooden life-sized mannequin and a cabinet that contained an arrangement of springs, gears and cogs, all presumably used to power its artificial intelligence decision making requirements.

This was however all a ruse as very well-concealed within was a chess master who continually beat nearly all those who played against the invention. The principle behind the Amazon Mechanical Turk is based on a reversed-roles situation whereby a computer program asks humans to perform tasks and provide the obtained results. Through the Amazon Mechanical Turk’s web services API developers submit tasks to the Amazon Mechanical Turk website, have the completed tasks approved and the answers incorporated into their software applications. The people who fuel this Artificial Artificial Intelligence then receive payments for their work. All that is required of software developers is for them to write normal codes.

Problems that Can Be Solved Using the Amazon Mechanical Turk

Software developers use the Amazon Mechanical Turk service to solve the problems they face in building applications that have hitherto failed to work as intended in the absence of human intelligence. The Amazon Mechanical Turk web service makes it easier for businesses and entrepreneurs who need to access a huge human intelligence network with the same cost-effectiveness and efficiency that would be possible if they were using computers instead. The Amazon Mechanical Turk website is very helpful in assisting skilled people to earn money in their spare time by providing them with work that they can handle anytime and anywhere.

Where Do You Learn About Task Completion?

To make money with Amazon Mechanical Turk you just need to learn how to get the tasks done by visiting http://mturk.amazon.com.

Types and Examples of Work that Can Be Done Using the Amazon Mechanical Turk

Basically, you can take up any task that is possible to get done using a computer that has an internet connection.

With the introduction of the Amazon Mechanical Turk, Amazon’s intention was to create a means by which specific problems of internal data processing could be solved using human intelligence and judgment. The result was a system that software developers could use to create innovative applications based on human intelligence and as such Amazon made the decision to present it as a web service for more exposure.

Some of the tasks that you can take up with the Amazon Mechanical Turk are meant to benefit A9.com which is the search subsidiary for Amazon.com. For these tasks the Amazon Mechanical Turk’s role is to make improvements to the quality of the BlockView pictures available on A9.com. These are street-level images of businesses that are shown to users. For these tasks HITs people are asked to pick from several photographs one that presents a given business front best. The Amazon Mechanical Turk website still lists thousands of such HITs.

What are the Requirements Needed for You to Take Up Tasks on Amazon Mechanical Turk?

There are just two requirements needed of everyone that wishes to complete the Amazon Mechanical Turk website tasks and have payments made to them by respective Requesters: A computer and internet connection and that one is at least 18 years of age. Such persons can use skills already in their possession to complete tasks in their own time and schedule. To earn money you just need to look for HITs, i.e., Human Intelligence Tasks, on the Amazon Mechanical Turk website, reserve them, complete them and have them approved by the Requester.

Upon signing up with MTurk, i.e., the Amazon Mechanical Turk, you are subsequently referred to as a ‘worker’ which means you are qualified to work on the available tasks. For each completed HIT you earn some money which can be a few cents or even several dollars. Put simply, you earn more money with the completion of more difficult tasks. Though the money-earning potential is not as rewarding, Amazon Mechanical Turk is a nice way to earn some bucks whenever you have the time to complete some interesting tasks for a change.

What are the requirements and procedures for money collection upon task completion?

Everyone who intends to make money with the Amazon Mechanical Turk web service is required to have an Amazon.com account. The reason for this is that the Amazon.com payments infrastructure and secure identity are leveraged by the Amazon Mechanical Turk web service and the Amazon Mechanical Turk website.

Money is automatically deposited by the Amazon Mechanical Turk into the Amazon.com account of any person who has completed a given task, subject to approval by the Requester. As the account holder you can then opt to have the monies transferred to your personal bank account or retain them in the same account and use them to settle any purchases you may make.